10 AQUATIC PLANTS. 



weed, " extending over a surface almost seven times 

 greater than that of France," and a single stem of 

 Macrocystis pyrifera of the Pacific has been found to 

 attain the length of 1500 feet, while the Chorda Filum 

 of the British seas extends to 40 feet. Even " our 

 land-forests do not harbour so many animals as the 

 low, wooded regions of the ocean, where the Sea- 

 weed rooted to the shoals, or long branches of Fuci, 

 detached by the force of waves or currents, and swim- 

 ming free, upborne by air-cells, unfold their delicate 

 foliage." Well, indeed, may the botanist exclaim, in 

 the language of the poet 



" Oh, what an endlesse worke have I iu hand, 



To count the Sea's abundant progeny ! 

 Whose fruitfulle seede farre passeth those in land, 



And also those which wonne in the azure sky. 



For much more eath to tell the starres on hy, 

 Albe they endless seem in estimation, 



Then to recount the Sea's posterity ; 

 So fertile be the flouds in generation, 

 So huge their numbers, and so numberlesse their nation." 



But, besides the numerous family of Ocean Flowers, 

 which, in vast congregations, form the meadows and 

 the forests of the deep, and often fringe our rocky 

 shores, and line with their delicate tapestry the 

 dreary caverns at the bottom of the sea, there is a 

 large class of Aquatic plants, whose foliage and 

 flowers float upon the surface of the water in our 

 lakes and rivers, and in whose structural characters 



